We have identified that a large number of employers are recording their own email address in the applicant email address field or are putting ‘NULL’ in this field.

Please be aware that this field must contain the applicants email address.  When we receive a basic application the system searches to see if the applicant details match against other applications that already exist within the system so that these can be linked.

The email address is one of the fields used for this matching process.  As we are receiving a very high number of applications containing the same email address, the system is identifying unnecessary potential matches which have to be discounted and this is impacting on system performance.

In addition to this we are currently considering whether correspondence currently sent by letter to the applicants home address could be sent by email instead but we are unable to do this if the email address is not being completed correctly.  Please can you ensure that the applicants email address is recorded on all future applications.